EXPLORATIONS IN TURKESTAN

CHAPTER XVIII.
Sus palustris Rliitimeyer.
Ordo ARTIODACTYLA.
SUINA.
(Plate 72, figs. 3 S, and plate So.)
Tle remains of the pig are very common in tle Anau kurgan. There are
about I20 pieces, the greater part being remains of skulls. The hard frontal
bones have shown thenlselves especially resistant. We have, therefore, parts
of the frontalia of at least seven individuals, some older and some younger. In one
of these pieces the bregma has a thickness of 2.5 cm., forming a real armor-plate
over the brain, while this measurement in other individuals amounted( only to 1.
to 1.5 cm. This animal was probably a very old l)oar. (nly one brain-skull
has all the bones complete. Iven then the skull was split in the milddle along
thl suture so that a restoration was necessary. The skull is decidedly that of a
small adult pig, whose front shows a slight convexity, which we usually find in
the Indian Sus cristatus or S. viltaius Miiller & Schlegel. \Ve shall consider with
Nehring (Katalog, i886, p. 54) Sus cristatus as the continental variety of Sus
vittatus and employ for the south Asiatic pig the general naml' of S. viit(taus. In
crmparing with the p.irts of this skull the frontal, parietal, or occipital pieces of
the other individuals mentioned, one recognizes tlat tlih other individuals can
have bsen no larger than this. The relations of tle skull to tlose of different
other small Suider, as well as to two other small skulls from Anau, are shown
clearly in the table on the following page.
This table shows that the skulls fron Anau stand nearest to tllose of a wild
Sus vittatus from Sumatra or to a tame Battak pig, not only in form but also in
dimensions, and tlat they possess the greatest similarity to the skulls of the
Torfschwcit (turbarv pig) of Schlossberg and La T'ne, as appears from their
general form. I think, tlerefore, that I shall not go amiss if I pronounce these
skulls to be the oldest known remains of the 7crfschlwcin or turbary pig.
According to the researches of Rtitimeyer,* Rollestone,t Otto,+ and others,
Sus palustris, the turbary pig, which first appears in tlhe Swiss pile-dwellings
luring the later neolithic period, is derived from Sus vittatus, wlicli would agree
very well with our finding.
Nehring,$ on the other hand, considers Sus palustris to have been autochthonous
also in Germany and merely a starveling form (Kumnmerform) of Sus
scrofa domesticus. \Which one of tlhe opinions is correct can ble dletermined witli
*Riitimever, Einige weitere Beitraege, etc., Verhandlungen, Basel, 1876.
tRollestone, On the I)omestic Pig of Prehistoric Time in Britain, Trans. Iinn. Soc., scr. 2, vol. r.
TOtto, F., Osteolog. Studien z. Geschichte d. Torfschweines, Revue Suisse de Zoologie, 1(or.
§Nehring, Ieber das sog. Torfschwein (Sus palustris). Vcrhandl. Berl. anthrop. (tGsell., pp. IS- 1S7.
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